In the blog post we link to here, the Learning First Alliance pleads that a more thoughtful public dialogue on education is needed. They provide specific recommendations on constructive ways to speak on the subject. For example, they propose:

Instead of “Our schools are failing,” let’s try, “Public schools need to get better at meeting the needs of all our students, regardless of socioeconomic class or ethnicity. And, we all need to work on this together to be successful.”

(The LFA, by the way, is a coalition of well-known national education groups. Check out their website.)

But it requires lots of people saying such things in order to actually change the nature of the discussion. So let’s not wait. Teachers can help make this happen by speaking out thoughtfully in our communities, ourselves.